ARTICLE IN PRESS

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

11 (2007) 16981719
www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

Investigation of agricultural and animal wastes in

Greece and their allocation to potential application
for energy production$
V. Skoulou, A. Zabaniotou
Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University Box 455, University Campus,
Thessaloniki 541 24, Greece
Received 11 November 2005; accepted 19 December 2005

Abstract
Agricultural and animal wastes constitute a high proportion of biomass in Greece, and are able to
play an important role towards the satisfaction of heat and/or energy and related material supply,
with respect to the environmental protection targets. This paper describes pyrolysis, gasication and
combustion, as a potential agricultural and animal waste exploitation method, and presents a
comparison between those treatments when utilized as a source for renewable energy. The aim of the
present work was to strengthen the interest in agricultural and animal waste potential for energy
production in Greece, through a methodology for the feasibility of utilization of those kinds of
wastes as renewable energy resources.
A combination of technical, economic and environmental issues is presented here, and focus on the
benets that thermochemical conversion is able to offer, either in investigation or in future
technological application for alternative exploitation methods of animal and agricultural wastes.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Agricultural; Animal; Wastes; Energy; Environment; Greece

$
This work is a part of a research programme funded by Greek government (PENED2003), which aimed at the
design and construction of a pilot scale gasication unit of 30 kW, using various agricultural and animal wastes as
raw material for energy production.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 2310 996274; fax: +30 2310 996209.
E-mail address: sonia@cheng.auth.gr (A. Zabaniotou).

1364-0321/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.rser.2005.12.011

ARTICLE IN PRESS
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1699

Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Methodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Energy supply in Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Agricultural wastes in Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Animal wastes in Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Thermochemical treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.1. Thermochemical treatment of agricultural residues in Greece .
7. Thermochemical treatment of animal wastes in Greece . . . . . . . . . .
7.1. Animal manures in Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.2. Animal by-products in Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8. Economic aspects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9. Environmental impacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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1. Introduction
Greece is located in the east side of Mediterranean Sea, covers an area of 131,940 m2,
with a population ranging 10.6 million people and is enjoying a moderate growth through
the last decades [1]. Social, economic and industrial development results in a continuously
raising energy-consumption demand. Especially, electrical energy consumption shows a
rise of 170% through the previous 20 years [2]. It is clear that owing to the limited
indigenous conventional energy sources, country is obliged to import almost 70% of its
annual energy demand, in forms of fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas [1] (Table 1).
The main electricity supplier in Greece is Public Power Corporation (PPC) and
according to a latest forecast, annual increase, in electric power consumption, is expected
to reach up to 4% by 2005. Following this scenario, countrys electricity demand will reach
72 TWh by 2010 [3]. It is clear that if it is to align with the EC Directive 2001/77/EC and
reach a 20.1% contribution of renewable fuels to electricity production, an amount of
14 TWh (including hydroelectric activity) must be supplied by exploitation of nonconventional energy sources [3]. Additionally, and under the EC Directive on February
2001, PPC has lost its monopoly in electricity production, suggesting that 35% of power
production should be generated from other sources. Laws and national directives have
already liberated electricity market, and a considerable interest in electricity generation
from renewable energy sources has already arisen [4]. Up to February 2003, 35
applications had been submitted to Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) and half of
them, with a total capacity of 82 MW, were authorized [3]. From that point of view, energy
generation from biomass resources in Greece faces, nowadays, less bureaucracy and
nancing problems and has shown a stable growth during the last years.
2. Methodology
This research has been based on information about agricultural and animal waste
amounts, locality of production, availabilities, physicochemical characteristics, existing

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V. Skoulou, A. Zabaniotou / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 11 (2007) 16981719

Table 1
Energy production from fossil fuel sources in Greece (2002) [1]
(KTOE)
Oil
Natural gas
Coal

Reserve
517
4
218

Production

Recovery products

Imports

Ship tank

Exports

189
42
8.914

134

4127
1755
646

3111

3815

energy conversion technologies, future perspectives and European Community and

national legislation directives about biomass treatment in a national level. All the provided
information was combined under the below-proposed methodology for identifying,
quantifying, characterizing, developing and analyzing waste, provides thereby, the
essential data for planning efcient disposal processes and for formulation facilities for
efcient disposal and utilization of biomass for energy production [5].
The methodology used for this study involved a bibliographic study according to which
a wide variety of documents and records relating to agricultural residues and animal wastes
in Greece (manure and by-products) were collected and studied in order to obtain all the
background information as well as useful data to enable a further formulation of a
theoretical biomass management model on agricultural and animal waste management in
Greece. Interviews with supervisors from various agricultural and animal wastes
generation facilities in Greece were also collected, such as the Ministry of Central
Macedonia, Pioneer Hi-Bre Hellas S.A. an agriculture seed selling company,
N.Ach.Philippopoulos S.A. a company for design and construction of electromechanical equipments for energy utilization of biomass, and the National Center of Renewable
Energy Sources. All the information collected helped in updating the above-mentioned
bibliographic information and shaded light on the present status of energy exploitation of
biomass in Greece.

3. Energy supply in Greece

Greeces diverse topography and temperate climate, agricultural and animal breeding
culture and windy and shiny climate, give the country the opportunity to exploit almost
any kind of renewable energy form. Wind and solar energy are already in use not only in
distant areas but also in many Greek islands (Crete, Evia, Andros, Samos, Chios, Lesvos,
etc.), while there is a history in burning agricultural (or even animal) wastes in some rural
areas in order to produce heat mainly for cooking and heating houses or other closed
spaces [1]. Connection difculties with the main energy/electricity supply systems,
economy and environmental sensitiveness were, and still remain, the driving force for
renewable energy sources (RES) implementation. Additionally, it is a fact that Greek
Energy Market depends on fuel imports from Middle East countries (Saudi Arabia, Iran,
Libya, Egypt) and Russia, while indigenous conventional energy sources are mainly lowquality lignite deposits (supplied from Northern Greeces deposits in Ptolemais, Amintaio)
and some amounts of petroleum (circa 6.400 bbl/day from Prinos area in Aegean
Sea, opposite to Thassos island), negligible natural gas and some hydroelectric station
activity [6].

ARTICLE IN PRESS
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1701

16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
Liquid
Biomass
Gas
Solar

Fossil
Wind
Large Hydro
Small hydro

Fig. 1. Contribution of different forms of energy production in Greek Energy Market (KTOE, 2002) [7].

At the moment, biomass contributes only with a small percentage in countrys electric
energy production (79 GWh according to 2002 estimation), while it traditionally dominates
in heat energy production sector, mostly with wood combustion, ranging in second place
after lignite exploitation [7]. Lately, there is a signicant political promotion (through
nancial incentives, e.g. tax breakages and public capital subsidies reaching 40%) towards
RES utilization [4]. According to information from National Centre of Energy Sources,
RES contributed, during 2002, 1.396 KTOE to the total primary energy supply, while the
contribution of all other forms of fuels (renewable and fossil) is depicted in Fig. 1. It had
already been reported that approximately 2730 plants operated using biomass (cotton gin
factories, olive kernel factories, wood processing industries, rice straw mills, etc.) without
taking into consideration the biomass amounts that are utilized in house [4].
Additionally, huge amounts of agricultural residues (branches, leaves, kernels, stalks,
cuttings, straw, etc.) and animal manures are seasonally accumulated in small areas,
leaving a promising source of energy unexploited [8,9]. Only a small percentage of those
wastes energy potential is already utilized, mainly by conventional combustion [8,10,11];
or mixed combustion of agricultural and animal wastes [12,13] or agricultural wastes with
coal [14]. Also, some others use anaerobic digestion or co-digestion [1518] and
composting [19,20] of animal and/or agricultural wastes, but those methods are classied
as biological. Agricultural and animal waste utilization for energy production purposes
could be important not only for economical but also for environmental reasons. Under this
perspective, and the fact that thermochemical treatment of agricultural wastes has a long
history in Mediterranean region, much effort has been made in scientic research around
the world and also in Mediterranean region [17,2129,34,37,39,40], while scientic research
towards animal wastes begins recently to gain a special interest [9,13,21,3133].
Greece has already made a very promising step towards R&D [22,29], funding and
legislation in order to achieve its environmental protection targets with energy satisfaction
and air pollution prevention demand. In that way, it is viable for Greece to take advantage
of its indigenous vast biomass amounts and produce renewable energy, exploiting almost
all forms of RES [4] (Fig. 2).

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V. Skoulou, A. Zabaniotou / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 11 (2007) 16981719

0%

7%

2% 0%
29%

6%

56%
Hydroelectric energy
Wind
Solar
Geothermic

Biomass
Photovoltaics
Biogas

Fig. 2. Energy production from all forms of Renewable Energy Sources in Greece (KTOE, 2003) [41].

4. Agricultural wastes in Greece

Agricultural wastes represent a primary energy source in rural areas of Greece and
contribute to energy production, mainly with wood combustion. The main production in
agricultural wastes, in Greece, comes from agricultural and farming activities in the elds.
Agricultural residues, that characterize Greek agriculture activity, are shown in the gure
below (Fig. 3):
The main advantages that biomass energy utilization offers, are reduction of CO2 and
SO2 emissions in atmosphere (Kyoto protocol alignment, 1997), prevention of climate
change (Rio UN framework agreement, 1992), avoiding energy dependence on
conventional fossil fuel imports, strengthening employment in decentralized regions
(islands and/or rural areas) and contribution to green energy production targets.
Following the above advantages of biomass utilization, there are also some disadvantages
that bring difculties to biomass energy exploitation: the big raw material volumes;
difculties in collection and transporting from remote rural areas and islands; high
moisture contents by unit of produced energy (and as a result, reduced biomass heating
value); the seasonal character of its production and the variety in quality even for the same
biomass sample. All above factors lead to high investments when biomass is to be exploited
by any of the thermochemical methods, but, in case of combustion, it is encouraging that
plant depreciation ranges about 13 years [8,35]. Also, according to the latest information
from National Center of Energy Sources, biomass had been utilized mainly in house
heating and some industrial processes and is generated mainly by combustion, while until
the end of 2004 had not been utilized in transport sector for biofuel production (Fig. 4).
However, two biodiesel production industries have been constructed recently, the rst in
Kilkis (ELVI S.A.) and the second in Volos (ELIN S.A.), in order to help the Greeces
alignment with European Communitys 2003/30/EC directive about biodiesel production
and contribution in transport sector.
One of the criteria that is of primary interest when it is to evaluate a method for
agricultural waste treatment is the raw material moisture content and the stoichiometric
relationship C/N. For moisture contents lower than 50%w/w and ratios C/N430,
thermochemical treatment of biomass is applicable in the form of direct combustion,

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1703

Dry tons/year
1600000

1400000

1200000

1000000

800000

600000

400000

200000

0
Olive tree prunings
Corn stalks
Corn cobs
Orange tree prunings
Peach tree prunings
Lemon tree prunings
Tangerine prunings

Cotton stalks
Soft wheat straw
Sugar beet leaves
Apple tree prunings
Almond tree prunings
Sunflower straw
Cherry tree prunings

Fig. 3. Basic agricultural wastes in Greece (Dry tons/yr) [7].

800
600
400
200
0
Biomass
house

Biomass
industry

Biomass
transport

Fig. 4. Biomass use in different activities in Greece (KTOE, 2003) [41].

Durum Wheat straw

Vineyard prunings
Barley straw
Rice straw
Oats straw
Pear tree prunings
Tobacco stems

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pyrolysis, or gasication, otherwise it is better to be lead to biochemical treatment

(aerobic/anaerobic digestion, composting, etc) [6]. Physical and chemical characteristics of
the above-mentioned agricultural residues are shown in the table below, as well as the
equal petroleum amount in case of their exploitation for production of renewable energy
(Table 2). The areas where agricultural wastes are mainly produced in vast amounts are
Thessaly, East Macedonia, Peloponnesus and Crete island [7].
5. Animal wastes in Greece
In Greece, animals produce a substantial amount of wastes, as animal breeding activity
is highly developed. The number of animals that were breaded in year 2000 is depicted in
Fig. 5. After a rough estimation, it is underlined that due to intensive animal farming,
4550 m3 of pig, cattle and poultry manures are produced daily, resulting in that way to an
annual load of 16.610.000 m3 of animal manure stock (Fig. 6). Those animal wastes
spreading in Greek rural areas come mainly from medium- and large-scale animal farms
and are placed all over the country. Also, the fact that there are, traditionally, many smallscale animal farms in Greek rural areas must not be ignored, and as it shows, most of them
are located in Central Macedonia (Thessaloniki, Imathia), Epirus (Ioannina), Thessaly
(Evia), and Attica representing a 55.6% of the total national amount in animal wastes
production [7].
According to the new EU Regulation (1/5/2003), stricter conditions on safe collection,
transport, storage, handling, processing, use and disposal of animal by-products are
imposed. It is, additionally, known that animal manure and waste contain large amount of
pathogen organisms, and is a source of problems like odour emissions, wastewater
pollution and vector attraction. As a result, they should be treated with special care as an
obligation against public health protection and general environmental protection.
Salmonella and Campylobacter are well known to be responsible for chicken meat and
manure infections, while Escherichia coli becomes more resistant due to antibiotics that are
fed to cattle and pigs. It is then clear that heating processes are more effective in killing
those pathogens than in deep stacking or fermentation [43,44].
Additionally, with anaerobic digestion, the feasibility of exploiting those wastes would
be viable only in medium/large-scale animal breeding units, where waste production would
be signicant and centralized. Total methane production of those wastes could reach
500,000 m3/day with an energy potential of 400 TOE [7]. Physical and chemical
characteristics of representative animal wastes in Greece are shown in Table 3. Recently,
Directive 1774/2002 EC, European Union, imposes a new practice in animal waste
treatment, by which animal wastes (meat and bone meal) are prohibited to be fed in animal
breeding chain, when those animals are to be consumed following the human food chain.
As a result, huge amounts of wastes, which previously were used as animal food, remain
unexploited and their potential for energy production reasons could be, now on, under
consideration.
6. Thermochemical treatment
Biomass combustion [8,10,11] is the most ancient method for energy production that
mankind ever used. Even nowadays, combustion contributes to almost 85% in energy
production methods. Combustion is characterized by a chemical reaction between a fuel

Table 2
Agricultural residues in Greece and their characteristics [42,8,36,38]

N (%ww)

4.75

49.9

43.4

0.7

6
40

13.3

41.23

5.03

34

2.63

350,059
80,415

0
15

6.4
13.7

45.53

6.15

41.11

455,589

364,471

40

3.8

47.6

5.6

276,157
246,169

165,694
123,084

7.1
75

5.34
4.8 dry

46.3
44.5

238,274
190,505

35,741
152,404

15
40

4.9 dry
2.8

46.8
47

173,850

139,080

40

157,200
151,729

94,320
121,383

25
40

104,902

83,921

40

55,383
49,009

8307
39,207

15
40

4.9

46

5.91

43.5

1.13

47,671
38,409

28,603
30,727

40
40

52.9

6.58

35.9

1.38

28,580

22,864

40

24,256

19,404

40

84.2

23,767
9829

14,260
7864

85
40

0.2

80.4

Olive tree
prunings
Cotton stalks
Durum wheat
straw
Corn stalks
Soft wheat
straw
Vineyward
prunings
Corn cobs
Sugar beet
leaves
Barley straw
Orange tree
prunings
Apple tree
prunings
Rice straw
Peach tree
prunings
Almond tree
prunings
Oats straw
Lemon tree
prunings
Sunower straw
Pear tree
prunings
Tangerine tree
prunings
Cherry tree
prunings
Tobacco stems
Apricot tree
prunings

1,468,857

881,314

1,463,015
1,229,189

877,809
184,378

583,431
536,103

Moisture
(%)
7.1

Ash (%ww)

13.4
1

Volatiles
(%ww)

S (%ww)

HHV
(Kcal/kg)

KTOE

4500

396591.3

3772
4278

331072.5
78882.05

0.78

0.13

4253
4278

148878.1
34403.78

41.1

1.8

0.08

4011

146189.3

5.6
5.9

42.19
42.8

0.57
1.84

0
0.13

4300
4230

71248.42
52070.4

5.53
6

41.9
43.2

0.41
1

0.06
0.03

4489
4433

16042.73
67560.69

4254

59169.89

2900
4500

27352.8
54622.35

4398

36906.64

0.015

4321
4207

3589.705
16492.72

0.15

4971
4302

14219.72
13219.31

69.8

69.3
79.1

41.8
53

4.63
5.9

36.6
39.1

0.7
0.32

0.08
0.05

4207
5198

51.4

6.29

41.2

0.8

0.1

3848
4971

9617.915
10087.11
5487.335
3909.515

1705

O (%ww)

Availability

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H (%ww)

Production
(ton/yr)

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C (%ww,
dry)

Agricultural
wastes

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40000000
35000000
30000000
25000000
20000000
15000000
10000000
5000000
0
Cattle

Pig

Poultry

Fur animals

Sheep
Horses

Fig. 5. Number of animals in medium/large-scale Greek farms (2000) [2].

1.687.9345m3
(42%)

59.238 m
(0%)

Cattle wastes
Poultry wastes

22.168.958m3
(55%)
1.058.423m3
(3%)
Pig wastes
Sheep and Goat wastes

Fig. 6. Animal waste production estimation in Greece (2000) [7].

and usually air in excess levels and produces a signicant amount of energy in the form of
heat. But it is known that it also contributes unfavourably to environmental pollution
through ash generation, gaseous emissions, etc.. Co-combustion of woody wastes with
some amounts of fossil fuels promotes renewable source utilization, while it reduces the
consumption of fossil fuels, ensures annual feeding of biomassfossil fuel blend and may
lead to money and energy saving.
On the other hand, pyrolysis [8,26,27] takes place under high temperature (up to 500 1C),
with slow heating rates and under environments with no, in order to prevent biomass
combustion. Imposing high temperatures, under oxygen-limited atmosphere, biomass
bonds degrade and as a result, a gaseous mixture composed mainly of CO, CH4 and H2 is
produced. Also, owing to the temperature that is not high enough to break long bonds in
carbon chain, tars (bio-oils) are produced in signicant quantities. Finally, and after
biomass devolatilization, char (black solid residue) is produced. Recent scientic research
activities are focussed on ash pyrolysis used in biooil production, with the advantages of
less gas and char production.
Biomass gasification [8,30,46,47,48] can be considered as a form of pyrolysis, which takes
place in higher temperatures and produces a mixture of gases with H2 content ranging
66.5%. Its scope is to optimize and maximize gas production. Firstly, drying and
pyrolysis take place, while in second stage, synthesis gas is produced. The reason is that
CO and H2O from combustion are converted to CO and H2. When imposing high
temperatures, biomass bonds break down and reform a mixture of permanent gases

Animal wastes

Animal
(2000)

Manure
(m3/
animal*yr)

Total
emissions
(kg NH3/
yr)

Manure
production
(2000)

Number
(2010)

Emission
(kg NH3 /
animal*yr)

Average
farm size
(animal)

Storage
(months)

Application
to
grassland
(%)

Application
to arable
land(%)

CH4 (Nm3/
yr)

Energy
potential
(TOE)

Cattle
106,215

Cattle
2,346,000

650,43
671,600

Cattle
276,000

Cattle
25.5

Cattle
2

Cattle
2.00

Cattle
50

Cattle
50

Cattle
71,175

Cattle
155

Cattleo1 year
Cattle 12 years

156,000
92,000

4.17
7.30

Cattle42 years
Male/Heifer

92,000
37,000

13.04

Pig

Pig
440,300

482,321

Pig
157,000

Pig
11.9

Pig
10

Pig
2.00

Pig
50

Pig
50

Pig
1825

Pig

Dairy Cow
Other Cow

168,000
137,000

16.43
14.60

Poultry
24

Poultry
43840

2,759,400
2,000,200

Poultry
16,216,000

Poultry
0.32

Poultry
15,520

Poultry
2

Poultry
50

Poultry
50

Poultry
109,500

Poultry
255

Pigso20 kg
Pigs420 kg

230,000
549,000

0.78
1.56

Sheep/Goat
980

Sheep/Goat
6,533,100

179,893
858,793

Sheep/Goat
15,000,000

Sheep/Goat
2.23

Sheep/Goat
53

Sheep/Goat
2

Sheep/Goat
50

Sheep/Goat
50

Sheep/Goat

Sheep/Goat

56,000
71,000

3.13
5.21

Horse

Horse
3,137,500

175,200
370,214

Horse
183,000

Horse
12.5

Horse

Horse

Horse

Horse

Horse

Horse

Poultry

39,492,096

0.00

14,583,000
251,000
60,000

1.20

Fur
animals
141,600

59,238

Sheep/Goat
Horse
Fur animals

Fur
animals

Fur
animals
60,000

Fur
animals
2.36

Fur
animals

Fur
animals

Fur
animals

Fur
animals

Fur
animals

Fur
animals

Breeding pigs
Covered sows

17,499,600

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Volatile
solids (m3/
yr)

V. Skoulou, A. Zabaniotou / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 11 (2007) 16981719

Table 3
Main animal wastes in Greece and their characteristics [7,42,8,45,16,31,20]

1707

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consisting mainly of H2, CO, CO2 and CH4. The percentages of those gases in the mixture
depend on several factors like the type of gasication agent (air, oxygen, steam or mixtures
of them), biomass physicochemical nature (moisture, particle size, heating value, etc.).
Comparing with air, when steam is introduced to reform CH4 to H2 and CO, higher
percentage of hydrogen is achieved, and the produced gas has higher heating value.
Additionally, gasication in combination with fuel cells, internal combustion engines or
gas turbine systems could be extremely attractive for electricity generation and is expected
to be an important part of biomass energy production with environmental friendly way.
Generally, as it concerns the by-products from different thermochemical treatments, e.g.
gasication against combustion gives better limits in CO2 emissions and it is widely known
that CO2 is considered neutral with respect to air pollution problems. It does not
increase CO2 concentration in atmosphere, as the carbon dioxide released from gasication
is already the inherent amount that biomass gained from atmosphere with photosynthesis.
Gasication under certain practice (Integrated Gasication combined Cycle) gives higher
efciencies (4550%) than that is usually achieved via combustion (2535%) [49]. On the
other hand, dioxin content that results from animal manure combustion can be avoided
under certain and strict control of good combustion conditions (following EC 2000/76
directive demands). And nally pyrolysis can lead to biofuel utilization, with the
advantages that a liquid fuel is able to offer (easy storage for short time and easy transport)
or char material exploiting as active carbon (Fig. 7).
6.1. Thermochemical treatment of agricultural residues in Greece
Unfortunately, there is no organized practice in agricultural waste management in
Greece until today, even if the countrys potential towards it is very promising. The most
common management practice in Greece is still burning in eld and as a result
uncontrolled res spread and atmosphere pollution is seasonally appearing. There are also
some agricultural industries that, usually after private initiative and with the help of public
taxation intensives, burn their agricultural residues to produce mainly heat, and then
recycle it for utilization in their production activities (Table 4). According to National
Center of Renewable Energy Sources, estimation of the total amount of agricultural
residues annual exploitation in Greece reaches the amount of 5.5 million tons in eld
crops [50].
Industries, that exploit energetic potential of their residues are mainly cotton ginning
factories that use the produced heat in order to dry cotton and to heat their space, olive
kernel oil factories that burn the olive cake to heat their closed spaces, drying processes
and provide heat for greenhouse cultivations, wood industries that burn the sawdust for
the same reasons, fruit kernel factories that provide themselves part of their necessary
production heat supply, rice mills, etc (Fig. 8).
7. Thermochemical treatment of animal wastes in Greece
The main animal waste sources in Greece are manures from pigs, chickens, cattle, sheep,
goat and also some horses and fur animals and residues from meat industry processing, e.g.
meat trimmings, bones, feathers, etc. What farm owners used to do as exploitation of
animal manures, until recently, was to sell them as a fertilizer [2] or simply spread onto
agricultural and/or arable land. Another common method of converting these waste

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Biomass
pretreatment

Pyrolysis

Storage or
Pretreatment

Tar Char
Gas

Biomass
pretreatment

Combustion

Ash

Air

Pyrolysis
unit

Combustion
Unit

Exhaust
gases

Heat

Internal Combustion
Engine
Combustion unit

1709

Exhaust
gases

Boiler

Steam Turbine
Machine

Heat Electricity

Heat Electricity

Gasificatio

Biomass pretreatment
Ash
Gas cleaning
Gasifier

Some
Air/Steam

Ash, Exhaust gases

Heat

Heat Electricity

Combustion unit
Internal Combustion
Engine
Steam Turbine
Fuel cell

Fig. 7. Agricultural/animal waste thermochemical treatment overview.

materials is via anaerobic digestion [16], a biological treatment that lead to gas production
in relatively long periods. Direct product from anaerobic digestion is biogas, rich in CH4
that can be used in internal combustion engines either, for electricity generation, or burn
directly for cooking, and space and water heating. But, at the moment, the most common
practice in animal manure treatment in Greece is still their utilization as fertilizer for
agriculture land; while in some rural areas, they still combust them for heat production.
7.1. Animal manures in Greece
Animal manures are stocked in rural areas, especially outside medium- and large-scale
animal farms, and create signicant environmental problems like underground water

1710

Installed electrical
capacity (MWe)

Installed thermal
capacity (MWth)

Electrical Energy
(MWh/y)

Thermal Energy
(MWh/y)

Fuel

Technology

Meligalas, Messinia

8.14

n.a.

n.a.

n.a.

Pruning

Heraclio, Creta
Meligalas, Messinia
Filipiada, Preveza
Sparti, Lakonia

5.42
5
4.09
3

n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.

n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.

n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.

Grevena
AGRINO*

0.37
0.16

n.a.
4.3

n.a.
1033.3

n.a.
22,611

Cotton ginning
factories (18 units)
ALIBRADIS

n.a

Olive stones
Olive stones
Pig manure
Fruit peels and
bres
Wood residues
Rice industry
residues
Cotton residues

Gasication,
6  1,356 MW
engines
FBC, Steam turbine
FBC, Steam turbine
Aerobic digestion

Tasty foods
ZANAE
Domestic use
Wood residues
(58 units)
Dry olive kernels
(2633 units)
Husk/Kernels
Rice residues
(7 units)
Straw

no

88,889
0.141

no

Combustion
Combustion
Combustion

Alcohol industry
residues
Potato residues
Yeast residues
Wood

Combustion

2,325,556

Olive kernels

Combustion

3194
18,333

Rice residues

Combustion

8,163,508
320,278

250

ARTICLE IN PRESS

Industry

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Table 4
Plants using agricultural and/or animal wastes for power generation in Greece (2002) [7,3,4]

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1711

KTOE

6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Corn

Olive wood

Durum Wheat

Cotton

Olive pits

Olive husk

Soft wheat

Vine

Peach wood

Rice

Orange wood

Almond wood

Peaches

Tobacco

Nectarines

Fig. 8. Energy production from the main agricultural wastes in Greece (2002) [4].

pollution, gas and odour emissions, vector attraction and general visual pollution [43]. The
introduction from European Community of even stricter environmental targets on odour
and water pollution enforces member states to take into consideration that appropriate
waste management is now required, something that would provide further incentive for
waste-to-energy conversion.
Above all, the risk of pathogen spreading is still a threat for public health and should not
be underestimated. According to animal waste EU Directive (90/667/EEC), there are some
rules to prevent of pathogens, if it is to dispose and process animal wastes, and place them
on market. According to regulations, animal waste management should be lead in the
direction of composting or in a biogas production. As an example, animal by-products
used as a raw material in a composting plant must be subjected into the composting
reactor to a minimum temperature of 70 1C for 60 min and the resulting compost must
reach a standard where Salmonella is absent in a 25 g sample and composted animal byproducts may not be spread to pasture land.
As it concerns the animal manures in Greece, the most common practice is spreading
them as natural fertilizer in arable land [51], composting in mixtures with indigenous
agricultural residues and in some cases combusting them for heat production. The animal
manure estimated an annual amount produce to 38,000 tons/day, with a potential
production of 1.4 million m3 of CH4 and with an energy equivalent of 1.2 MTOE [52].
Thermochemical conversion of animal waste has shown very promising results in
treating wastes with safety and in producing oil. It is feasible to successfully convert up to
70% of swine manure solids to oil, and reduce manure chemical oxygen demand up to
75% [9]. Also some attempts have been made in chicken waste energy exploitation, giving
very good results in dioxin emission problem [8].

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7.2. Animal by-products in Greece

Animal by-products are composed of all the parts of a slaughtered animal that are not
destined for human consumption. Meat by-products hide a danger in pathogen
dissemination or are assumed as a possible source of illnesses and must also be treated
with special care. The most common alternative of their destruction is incineration, while
some investigation has been made in order to evaluate their energy content in case of their
thermochemical treatment. Even though incineration lies on a reliable technology, an oldexisting experience and an effective emission control through state-of-the-art techniques all
over the world, there is the negative public perception and competition with new
applications that leave it in lower place. In Greece, at present, there are 134 incinerators,
which cover all the EU-approved slaughterhouses [53]. But, usually, some amount of meat
by-products are utilized in food industries for meat proteins production, in animal food
industries and many other applications in product production like cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, etc. Undoubtedly, all uses involve strict heat treatment of at least 20 min, in 133 1C
and 3 bar pressure to ensure their safety in utilization. An estimation of animal waste and
by-product production in Greece is shown in Table 5, and also the amounts and ways of
their present treatment [53].
Main animal by-products are bones, skin and connective tissues (e.g. tendons) meat
trimmings, dead farm animals, etc., and according to a new EC Directive (1/5/2003) a
stricter management policy is introduced as it concerns their collection, transport, storage,
handling, processing, uses and disposal practices. Only 68% of chicken, 62% of pig, 54%
of cattle and 52% of sheep and goat is consumed directly, while the rest is turn to be a
potential waste and indicates the amounts of animal wastes produced.
Under any circumstances, and especially after the earlier food chain scandals (BSB
epidemic, poultry diseases, dioxin crisis, etc.), animal by-products must be treated safely
due to their tendency to become a hospitable pathogen carrier [43]. The practice of
recycling meat and bone meals to animal feeding is lately prohibited by EC directives, and
animal by-products cannot be fed anymore to same species animals. In general, EU
requires the same health standards for animal food as those for human food [54,55].
Disposal of specied animal by-products takes place mostly by direct incineration and
burial or landll practice. Additionally, resulting material of animal by-product
composting is spread on land as fertilizer. Also, in some countries, they feed dead farm
animals to species of animals that do not take part in the human food chain. Only low-risk
animal by-products are used as pet food and in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products [54].

Table 5
Production and disposal of animal by-products in Greece [53]
Activity

Animal by-products (ton)

Production
Storage
Incineration
Burial
Utilization as fertilizer or animal food
Export

267,951
2953
151,188
88,293
5558
1445

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1713

The current process and disposal route of animal by-products is direct incineration,
burial and/or landll in 43 EC-approved landlling sites that only accept pre-processed
animal by-products. But, according to EC report, there is still a shortage of animal byproducts destroying facilities and safe disposal is currently not ensured in Greece [53].
8. Economic aspects
Agricultural and animal waste management practice is very important for generating
income and employment and could turn to be an economic way of energy production.
Low-cost by-products of agriculture and animal breeding activity could enhance rural
economies and keep them alive. This possibility seems to be more attractive when biomass
is exploited under careful planning and in combination with a well-established energy
production technology. But economic opportunities are viable and could play an
important role, only under thoroughly inspected waste management practice and national
motivation. With the rising fossil fuel prices, biomass conversion in energy will cost less in
future and its utilization will contribute to money saving and environmental protection
[47]. Rough topography of Greek rural areas gives biomass an extra cost that otherwise
would not exist. Decentralized or modular form of bioenergy production would probably
help those enterprises economic viability. It could set free from labour cost, which is one
of the main factors that make energy production from biomass quite expensive. Some
economic data that affect energy production from biomass are depicted in Fig. 9. Biomass
combined power generating systems are able to offer diminished costs and economic
disengagement from fossil fuel dependence.
The lack of appropriate mechanization for biomass residue collection, the competitive
markets (e.g. animal food industries), the big raw biomass volumes that must be
transported, the lack of knowledge and inexistence in applicability of waste management
are some of the factors that at the moment dominate in biomass negative exploitation for
energy production reasons.
Currently there is no organized practice in agricultural and animal wastes management
in Greece, and as a result their exploitation is still set aside due mainly to economic reasons

5,8

Labour Cost
Manure
application
8

Fertilizer
Electricity
Gas

23

0,45

0,3
0,073
0,22

Water
Disposal

Fig. 9. Costs associated with energy production from biomass (h) [14].

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0,2-3
0,2-3

0-0,25

2-15

1-4

Coal-Lignite
Oil
Gas
Biomass
Hydro
Wind
3-11
Fig. 10. Fuel costs associated with energy production (h) [10].

and lack of incentives for their efcient utilization, something that should not set aside the
fact that biomass remains one of the cheapest fuel sources (Fig. 10). In Greece, at the
moment, there is a considerable wood and wood by-product exploitation for energy
production purposes, mainly by combustion technologies and only after private initiative.
Some information about costs of biomass (mainly wood) combustion installations in
proportion with installed capacity are shown in Table 6 [8].
But during the last decade, and under the pressures of EC Directive alignment with
environmental protection targets, national commitments in reduction of greenhouse gases
and biomass management instructions, there is a considerable interest in thermochemical
technology (gasication and pyrolysis) application for energy and related material
production from biomass resources.
9. Environmental impacts
Agricultural and animal wastes are able to contribute in a clean and safe renewable
energy production and support countrys socioeconomic development. Under sustainable
conditions of exploitation, biomass could be a very promising alternative to fossil fuels and
the old existing experience in thermochemical conversion techniques has already solved
some technical problems.
Some of the benets that agricultural and animal waste thermochemical treatment could
offer are abatement in CO2, NOX, and SOX emissions, preventing from phenomena like
acid rain, smoke fog, and contribute to countrys commitments in environmental
protection. It is known that air pollution results in serious health problems and damages,
thinns the ozone layer and leads to a climate change, but biomass conversion gases
contribute positively to air pollution prevention and help in exhaust gas reduction.
Biomass CO2 content is the inherentby photosynthesisamount and natural decomposition would, otherwise, help it to return to environment. Additionally, it is known that
methane from vegetable decomposition is much more active than released through
thermochemical treatment, CO2 [30]. Under this assumption, biomass thermochemical

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1715

Table 6
Classication and cost of biomass combustion installations in proportion with installed capacity [8]
Fuel

Combustor
description

Fluid
production

Cost during year 2000 (h)

1 MW

2 MW

3 MW

Low pressure
steam or hot
water
-//-

70,433

88,041

105,649

73,368

105,649

126,192

-//-

102,715

146,735

176,082

129,572
-//-

176,082
93,910

211,299
114,453

132,062

Heating of heat transfer oil (outlet temperature 280 1C)

4 MW

5 MW

6 MW

Cotton gin trash (3500 Kcal/kg)

410,858

410,858

484,226

n.a.

645,635

704,329

Sawdust (less than

21%ww moisture)

Ejection to the
combustion
chamber
Sawdust and wood chips Filament
(2140%ww moisture,
combustion
raw material, 20 mm size)
Sawdust and wood chips Conduction of
(2140%ww moisture,
combustion
pre-dried material,
gases through a
20 mm size)
rotary drier
Tree skin and wood chips Filament
mixture (max 40%ww
charge
moisture, pre-dried
material, 20 mm size)
-//0.6  10 6 Kcal/m2 h
Wood chips (300 mm)
Cybernated
installation
with
combustion in
steady lament

Cotton gin trash (3500 Kcal/kg)

Low pressure
steam
High pressure
steam
(1012 bar)

conversion techniques seem to be as attractive as natural decomposition, as it concerns the

gaseous emission impact in atmosphere. Also, most of agricultural wastes have negligible
sulphur content and, as a result, do not contribute to acid rain generation problem and
SOX releases to the atmosphere. Under strict combustion and thermochemical treatment
control, problems like dioxin formation during animal wastes treatment is viable to be
faced adequately [56,57].
Biomass utilization would also increase agricultural productivity, and ensure a better life
standard for people living and working in rural areas. It would also help in ensuring
reasonable prices for agricultural products, as the wastes from food products activity will
gain an additional value. Agricultural and animal products would, in that way, become
more competitive within and out of EU borders and help in environmental protection
targets [41]. Farmers would have an incentive to use again that part of land which was not
destined for agricultural and food production activities and would then treat their wastes
properly.
Ash that biomass combustion produces is usually free of sulphur and for that reason is
well applicable as fertilizer in farms. Co-combustion and co-gasication of coal and

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biomass wastes x annual availability, reduce its cost as a fuel and give better efciencies.
Sometimes biomass itself is cost-free and clearly does not depend on fuel price pressures.
CH4 and H2 gases that formed could be used for heat and electricity production or burned
in boiler.
As it concerns the socioeconomic impacts, biomass energetic exploitation could raise
employment in rural regions and in that way contribute to urbanism prevention.
Decentralized or modular form of biomass energy production could contribute to
economic and social development of islands and distant regions.
Energy production of agricultural and animal wastes has a relatively low impact in local
environment, including not only humans but also animals. As it concerns the current
activities, under which agricultural/animal wastes management take place in Greece (left to
decompose in soil or burning in elds), this practice hide some dangers. First of all, as it
concerns the human health, there is a potential of lung-breathing illnesses, that are caused
due to the smoke and gaseous emissions inhalation. The risk of uncontrolled res is always
on question, threatening the ecosystem, especially during the summer season and when
temperatures are high and agricultural activities are in their peak. Additionally, burning
those wastes always hide the danger or releasing some possibly dangerous chemicals that
were absorbed from vegetable tissues, or consumed by animals. It introduces some risk in
releasing heavy metals to the environment. Also, sound pollution can occur in some extent
due to the machinery that is used for waste collection and management (tractors, trailers,
etc.). Large amounts of wastes accumulated on eld, mainly from animal wastes, create
odour and aesthetic problems. Many pathogen bacteria are generated to animal manures
and are carried in underground waters through manure leachates, attract vectors and
impose serious odour emitting problem.
It should not also be underestimated the fact of the bad aesthetic of polluted areas,
where huge amounts of biomass wastes (agricultural and/or animals) are left in open air to
follow a natural decomposition route. Also, a possible danger would be the land
degradation that could lead to severe ows during the winter rains, due to extensive
harvesting. While, on the other side, over irrigation could lead to lack of water during
summer or on the other side, leachates of those wastes could pollute water resources.
10. Conclusion
It is clear that Greece has a great opportunity to exploit its huge biomass stock, and
specically agricultural and animal wastes. Diverse topography and climate is a very
important factor for countrys energy autonomy and is of strategic importance. Under the
recently set national commitments on EU legislations over environmental protection,
alignment with Kyoto protocol emissions abatement and climate change protection,
Greece could viably exploit its renewable energy sources, under an environmental friendly
and economic viable way.
The future of biomass energy supply lies in the optimization of old-experienced
techniques and combination through closed integrated cycles of energy production and
exploitation. Greece is already making a very promising effort towards the satisfaction of
EU environmental protection and renewable energy promotion policy targets, improving
institutional, regulatory, research and funding changes favouring biomass utilization for
energy purposes. Scientic research and international cooperation, under the assumption
of law establishment and political enforcement through economic incentives in the eld of

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1717

biomass energy exploitation, are going to strengthen the interest in agricultural and animal
waste management, enforcing, also, the possibility of their expanded exploitation in energy
production. Much effort focuses, the latest decade, on the benets that thermochemical
technologies are able to offer, not only in investigation but above all, in future
technological application for alternative methods of exploitation of animal and
agricultural waste potential in Greece.
Some weaknesses like the low repeatability, the high capital costs, huge biomass volumes
that generated in rural areas could be solved through co-combustion/gasication of
biomass and conventional fuels, decentralized and modular form of energy production
systems and a very good established waste management/logistics system. But education,
national legislation and research should shoulder the biggest part of the responsibility in
disseminating the knowledge of biomass potential use in energy production systems.
The need in demonstration of innovative and state-of-the-art technologies for Greeces
biomass waste exploitation is obvious. Reaching the target of high efciencies,
environmental-friendly technologies and integrated systems approach could be a viable
solution to Greeces energy consumption demand and as a result its general socioeconomic
development.
Acknowledgements
Authors are thankful to the Greek Ministry of Development, the General Secretariat for
Research and Technology in Greece and the European Commission (PENED2003) for
funding this research from its primary stages.
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